Principal's Message
Please take the time to read each page of our newsletter, as we provide you with information updates across our school.
SCHOOL EVENTS:
Please be aware that all upcoming events are viewable within our Compass Calendar. We advise all families to add these events to your schedules.
Department of Education (DE) Privacy Policy
A highlight of our school newsletter is the photos of our students learning, having fun, and being engaged in an array of extra-curricular opportunities. Based upon feedback from our parent engagement survey conducted in Term Four, 2025 we heard the message that parents/carers would like to see more photos that illustrate what their children are doing at school each day.
As a school, we think this is a great idea... as the saying goes, "A picture paints a thousand words".
With the above in mind, it is important that all members of our community are understanding of the DE Privacy Policy.
Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy and the Schools’ Privacy Collection Notice.
Our Photographing, Filming and Recording Students Policy, describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students. The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn. We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child, please contact the school.
For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools' privacy policy | vic.gov.au
Annual Report 2025
In April of each year, DE schools present a mandatory Annual Report to their school community. The Annual Report is a reflective and summarised capture of the school's performance in the previous school year. Within the Annual Report is a demographic profile of the school, a snapshot of NAPLAN performance, and a summary view of other DE data which is collected periodically throughout the year. The Annual Report concludes with a summary of the school's financial position.
Please see below a draft copy of our school's 2025 Annual Report. You will note within this report a watermark labelled 'draft', as this report has not yet been selected by the DE Quality Assurance Team.
What's involved in the DE Quality Assurance of Annual Reports?
The department quality assures a random selection of Annual Reports to ensure they meet quality standards.
To meet quality standards, Annual Reports must:
- outline how the school progressed their goals and supported improvement in student learning and wellbeing outcomes
- be written in a clear and succinct narrative style accessible to a public audience (for example, using plain language, avoiding jargon)
- contain minimal spelling and grammatical errors
- include a school logo
not include any of the following:
- Names of staff, students, contractors or DE staff
- Any reference to Out of Home Care program
- Number of students in any category, if less than 5 or the equivalent percentage
- Number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff
Schools who do not meet the quality assurance criteria outlined above may be required to edit and resubmit their Annual Report.
Please be aware when reading our 2025 Annual Report that this is a 'draft' report, based upon the above criteria:
School Council and Parent Association Membership 2026
Throughout Term One, the 2026 cohort of our School Council and Parent Association have been hard at work behind the scenes.
The ongoing support and commitment of our volunteers are crucial to the successful partnership that we have with our community.
Earlier this term, we held a call for nominations for School Council- during which we received nine nominations. This is a wonderful outcome for our school, and testament to the dedication of our parent/carer community.
We encourage you to commit the time to view our School Council page within each newsletter. If you would like to hear more about the functions of School Council, please reach out to our School Council President via: Robert Shepherd Robert.Shepherd@education.vic.gov.au
You will also note within the Parent Association (PA) section of this newsletter, that our PA are dedicated to providing a balance of opportunities for both our parent/carer community and our student community. This term our PA have held their Annual General Meeting (AGM) during which Jess Gotch was nominated, and accepted, into the role of PA President.
A highlight of our PA in Term One, was the opportunity for new families to our school to engage with each other over a recent weekend event.
If you would like to hear more about the functions of the Parent Association, please reach out to Jess Gotch via: upweysouthpta@gmail.com
What's been happening throughout our school in Term One?
Upwey South Primary School really is a very busy, and exciting place to belong. Throughout the term we have been engaging with other schools, students from across our region, and local community groups. A brief summary of some of the highlights of Term One are:
- preparing for our annual Emergency Management Plan in conjunction with the Upwey CFA
- selected Year Five/Six students attending John Monash Science School (JMSS) to partake in upper secondary science, math, and robotics
- many of our students taking part in VSSS choir and dance rehearsals, inclusive of one of our students being selected from a statewide talent pool to feature on-stage. To find out more visit the Performing Arts page
- our Foundation- Year Two students taking part in our annual swimming program at Knox Leisureworks, and our Year Three-Six students competing in district, division, and regional swimming events. For more information refer to our Health & Physical Education page
- our Year Three-Six students having the opportunity to once again select from an exciting array of community electives. Details of this are in our Curriculum page of the newsletter
- our senior school leaders taking part in filming a series of podcasts for Let'sTALK, as part of our school's social emotional and wellbeing approach. To hear from our student leaders visit the Student Leadership page
- the list of exciting events across our school could be endless, and we haven't even touched on the continued improvement to our facilities which is being overseen by School Council. To allow you to focus upon the student learning within this newsletter, we will provide a facilities update in our Term Two edition.
Below are just a few photos which reflect the excitement around our school throughout Term One.
Acknowledging the amazing students of USPS
One of the most wonderful things about my role as principal is being able to work one-one with students on a daily basis. As a principal-class team, Mrs Rowe, Ms Humphries and I pride ourselves on staying in touch with our community, being 'inside' classrooms, and remembering that before being a principal we are a 'teacher' first and foremost.
It is through our daily interactions with students that we can build a learning relationship which is based upon mutual respect, psychological safety, and shared responsibilities.
A personal highlight of this past fortnight has been the opportunity to work with four of our students who will be speaking at our end of term assembly. Each of these four students has written a very personal, and professionally passionate, speech about either neurodiversity or cultural harmony.
For those parent/carers available, we encourage you to attend this week's assembly (Thursday in the gym from 1:40pm) so that you can hear first-hand the amazing speeches from the students below:
- Margot- speaking about a French experience of school
- Sol- speaking about autism as a superpower
- Zara- sharing insights into dyslexia
- Seth- educating everyone about ADHD
For those of you unable to make the assembly, these four students have volunteered to share a copy of their speeches within this newsletter:
Communicating with the Principal
We look forward to partnering with you in 2026, and welcome your input:
Damien Kitch
Principal
m: 0459 864 712